Friday found me at Andrew's place, in his garage where the band normally held their rehearsals. It was a really spacey and cool-looking garage, perfect for an aspiring band in my opinion. The acoustics were great! Half of the floor was a slightly raised platform that Andrew's parents had helped put in place since they knew what he'd be doing and they had no use for the garage anyway since they didn't drive.

On said platform stood a fairly large drum kit that was closer to the back wall, two microphone stands placed directly in front of it for Bridgette and I, and a couple of amplifiers off to the side. Plugged into one of them was an electric guitar that would be used by Nicole, and plugged into another was Scott's bass. A piano stood against the wall that, if one were facing the platform as an audience member, was on the right.

In addition, there was a keyboard that turned out to be Josh's instrument of choice. On the left wall just in front of the platform was a medium-sized cabinet with glass doors containing a CD player and an impressive number of CDs. Various music awards and band posters made up the décor.

"Welcome, Alex," Andrew ushered me inside as the others were busy getting their instruments tuned and warming up. "Glad you could make it."

"Glad to be here," I replied, "I actually have a book of song lyrics with me that I wanted to share with you guys if you're interested."

"Totally!"

I handed him the book and he spent a few moments flipping through it and reading some of my work. "Alex, these...these are awesome. Can we use them?"

"Well, yeah, that's kind of why I brought them," I'd figured that had been fairly obvious. But I couldn't find it in me to be even a little bit annoyed with him when his words were so encouraging.

"Sweet. Hey, guys, check these out!"

As the book was passed around for everybody to see, they all praised me on what I'd written and, like Andrew, they wanted to put music to them and make them come to life. I was incredibly happy and grateful to them for that; I'd always dreamed of doing that very thing and now that dream could be fulfilled.

"This means a lot to me, you guys," I told them, "Really, it does. So which ones do you want to start with?"

"How about these?" Nicole points to a page, and collective agreements could be heard from the other members of the band--including me. It wasn't long until we were all coming up with ideas for the song—what key it should be in, the tempo, cool ideas for a bass line, etc. We were so engrossed in what we were doing that none of us noticed how quickly time was going by.

When someone finally did glance at the clock on the wall above the drum kit, it had reached 10:45. We had been here for hours without even realizing it. "Oh, shit. I should probably go unless I want my sister to have my head," I quickly began to gather my things. "Curfew and all that."

"Yeah, same. My mom flips out if I'm home past midnight," added Josh as he prepared to leave as well, "See you at school, guys."

"Bye," I added. My apartment building wasn't far from Andrew's place so it was easy for me to walk home from there. The entire walk, I forced myself to ignore the sounds of small objects shifting around of—apparently—their own accord. I knew it was me doing it by now and I knew why, but it still intimidated me and I wished more than anything that I could control it. Maybe then I could smack Leanne in the back of the head with a math textbook undetected. That would be a sight.

On the way home, I decided to take a detour. My curfew, like Josh, was midnight so I didn't have to worry too much about getting in trouble for staying out this late. I just had to keep an eye on my watch. There was a small park about two blocks from my building, which was where I found myself.

I wanted to find something to practice my power on without the interference of my sister. It was nearly pitch black at this point, but it didn't take long for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. When that happened, I was able to spot a fascinating heart-shaped stone sitting next to a little pond. Perfect, I thought.

Sitting on a nearby bench, I began to concentrate as hard as I could on the little stone, squinting my eyes like before and willing it to come forward. For at least half a minute, it wouldn't even budge. And then—slowly—it began to float toward me.

It stopped about five feet away, however. But it was still progress!

It took another twenty seconds to get it the rest of the way to where I was seated, but that didn't stop me from cheering internally when it dropped into my hand and I was able to just make out its purplish-grey colour. I decided to pocket the stone before returning home. Maybe I should try practicing on lighter things and work my way up, I contemplated as I took the elevator up to my floor where Abigail would surely be awaiting me. I decided to give the stone to Kate next time I saw her. I knew she collected those sorts of things, after all, and I had no doubt she would appreciate it.

"You were out later than I expected," commented Abigail as I walked through the door, "I thought the concert was tomorrow."

"It is, but I was practicing with the band and we weren't really watching the time," I explained.

"Alright, well, be sure to work on that. You were almost out past your curfew; I was beginning to worry."

"Fine, fine," I waved her off as I headed in the direction of my bedroom. Right now, I wanted nothing more than to sleep.

And sleep, I did.